A Meeting of Some Sort

Pople who cannot afford lodging can stay for free on a farm. In return they work and contribute to the compost making. Roy the resident donkey is the sole provider of dung and yet its contribution was not apprecited until Juggernaut decides to intervene.

Submitted:Nov 4, 2012
Reads: 14
Comments: 0
Likes: 0

A Meeting of Some
Sort

Subba Rao

"Well, I returned from
the mainland last night after spending some time with my family
in California," Eddy rubbed his bare chest with one hand and
trying to make coffee with the other. "Please introduce
yourself, I see some new faces and some old members were missing.
Let's start with you."

"I am James, for the
last several years I lived in homeless shelters across
California, now I fully extended my stay in the shelters, they
send me away and I have no place to live and have very little
income to support myself, I called my son living on the Big
Island for help, he brought me here, I will do anything on the
farm and I am no trouble to nobody," said an old man. James
looked healthy, for all his past living in the shelters, he
looked clean and well kept.

"Well, for those who
weren't into organic farming, let me tell you that your pee is
not a waste, it is fertilizer very useful here, and each one of
us produce it and so store your pee in milk jugs. You notice that
it smells like ammonia because pee or urine is rich in ammonia, a
major plant nutrient as Juggernaut, a trained soil scientist in
this field can attest, he lives close-by and visits us often,"
Eddy looked at Juggernaut standing several feet apart behind a
wooden dish rack ready to respond but the group ignored him to
his disappointment. Perhaps the group thought that throwing
animal dung, compost and pee around the plants is all it takes in
organic farming and needs no help from a specialist.

Meanwhile, a short
plump woman wearing a knee-high flimsy frock continued to dance
slowly moving her heavy hips and waving her hands without any
coordination as if she was out of control and was trying to
interrupt Eddy with silly questions and raising her hand begging
Eddy for a high-five. Eddy ignored her for the most part and
turned her away when she wants to hug him repeatedly. "Well, we
all know Catherine from Kansas, she is living on the farm from
last 6 months or so," Eddy at last acknowledged her presence.
"No, I have been living here only for 3 months," Catherine
corrected him and again tried to hug him.

"Here on the farm you
work 3 to 4 hours a day doing chores assigned to you; weeding,
harvesting, planting or collecting plant materials and animal
dung to make compost. In return, you get to live free on the
farm. Look around, this is paradise, sure it rains a lot but the
lush green trees, blue skies, bright sunshine and the nearby
ocean you can see all day long. Where else you can get this. In
California and Florida people pay millions for this living, here
it is all free. Please remember to keep the communal kitchen
clean, no smoking in the kitchen, please don't use profanities
and no fighting, reserve your drinking to weekends when we party.
Now is there anybody here good in computers? I need somebody to
fix my laptop so I can use to make telephone calls on it," Eddy
looked around then a hefty, big set man with baby-face raised his
hand. "My name is Jed, I am good in computers, I got laid-off
recently from a company after working for five years and I have
no savings to rent a place so I came down here to the farm to
live in one of the tens, I could fix your computer," Jed looked
confident.

"I am Ken and I am an
electrician," said a man wearing metal rims looked more like
school teacher with good looking brownish beard.

"We need you here, as
you all know we live outside the power-grid and depend on solar
and wind power, you can help us in fixing poor connections and
whatnot."

"Sure, I am also good
in fiber optics," added Ken.

"I don't know what the
hell fiber-optics meant but certainly if you can re wire my
cottage, that will be good," Eddy looked around for other to come
forward to introduce themselves and indicate their special
skills."

"I am John," said a
serious looking guy. "I am here for the last three months, spent
several years teaching English in Korea, Vietnam and Thailand,
while lived in San Francisco, I managed a poetry club for several
years, I am a poet and my father was a professor in English, if I
could be of any help to anybody here I will do it," john
completed his presentation without any smile on his face.

Juggernaut quietly
moved to stand next to John to start a conversation. "I write
short stories as a hobby," said Juggernaut and showed a story on
his smart phone he just published on the internet for John to
read. After a short read, he said "Umm, vocabulary, vocabulary
and vocabulary, without vocabulary one cannot write a poem or a
story, from what I read you have limited vocabulary but good
story line, keep working on your vocab, " John looked at
Juggernaut with a look of teacher. "Thank you, I am not good at
English but I can only express in English, I am not sure whether
I can improve my vocab in English any further than what I have,"
Juggernaut looked disappointed.

"No, you will improve
as time goes."

"Are you working on any
story or poem right now?" asked Juggernaut.

"I want to write a
novel, a lengthy one based in Alaska; a long journey of a family
with huskies and all that," John replied without looking at
Juggernaut.

"Well when you are
attending the fruit stand on the road side, you can think and
write," Juggernaut gave a suggestion.

"Well, right now my
responsibilities at the farm were to mow the grass and cut the
weeds, with shallow top soil it is difficult to operate a lawn
mower without lava rocks interfere ring with the mower blades, I
have to be careful, I have already damaged one mower and Eddy was
not happy about it," john spoke with authority in his voice and
his English sounded more British than American.

Juggernaut could not
make anything out of John's conversation, at one point John said
he was a serious poet but now he wants write a lengthy novel
based in Alaska.

"I am Lucy and I am 80
years old," said a petite wiry woman in jeans. She has thin body
with little flesh and if looses any weight she may just
disappear. "I born in Omaha Nebraska and then when I was 6 years
old moved across to Council Bluff, Iowa on April 11th
1938, and again moved for good to Oregon on June 4th
1940, I moved to Big Island on December 25th Christmas
day in 1998 and since then living in a old school bus on this
farm. When I was 47 years ago on September 27, I took celibacy
not have sex and avoid meat all together. I do duties of
recycling on the farm; I collect all the weeds and vegetable
waste from the communal kitchen and put it on a compost pile to
make compost."

Juggernaut was so
impressed with Lucy and how she remembered the specific dates of
the events in her life, he gave her a big hug.

"So, you are a
scientist?" she smiled pressing Juggernaut's hand.

"Well, I don't work
anymore, I am retired now and I write short stories as a
hobby."

"You look too young to
retire."

"Well, I am much older
than you think with lots of health problems," said
Juggernaut.

"If you turned into a
vegetarian like me you feel better and all the diseases will go
away."

"Well, I born into
vegetarian family but started eating meat after II left my old
country but now at this age, I am considering to revert back to
vegetarianism."

"That will do well for
you," said the old lady hugging Juggernaut.

Several other members
came forward to introduce themselves. Among them were a health
care professional from Georgia, a middle aged man looks more like
a football player with large biceps and neck from Maine and a man
with weathered face and red hair from Washington state. He looked
as if he went through tough times. The long standing residents
Mike and Anne did not say much except accepted the
responsibilities of taking care of the farm and managing the
manpower whenever Eddy was out of town doing some business. Eddy
called the meeting to an end and walked fast to his van, his
office parked partially under the tent.

The residents started
leaving the community kitchen and started walking slowly to their
tents or small wooden cottages scattered on the 5 acre farm close
to the ocean. Juggernaut saw Catherine walking towards her wooden
shack in dancing mode with her hands in the air as if she wants
to touch the sky. Outside her cottage was large towel depicting
Jamaican national flag hanging on a clothes line tied on both
ends to the trees. Juggernaut thought of asking Catherine if she
ever visited Jamaica but fearing her response could be
unpredictable, he chose not to approach her.

Conspicuously missing
at the meeting was Roy. Eddy didn't even care to mention the
existence of Roy on the farm though he said donkey dung is very
useful in composting. At a distance, Juggernaut noticed Roy
grazing on green grass growing on the lava rock, the lonely
donkey on the farm. Donkeys on the farm sometimes attract wild
donkeys but apparently Roy has no friends yet.

"I am sure Eddy didn't
care to mention me at the meeting though I am sole supplier of
dung on the farm, I can only put out so much. Just human pee
amounts to nothing in supplying nutrients to the plants, it is
absurd. Eddy should consider adopting more wild donkeys, get a
flock lambs and goats or even a herd of cows to graze on cane
grass, as a large group, we can supply enough organics to make
compost for organic farming," Roy looked disappointed.

"In the next meeting I
will make sure you will be there with me to make a point that a
dozen farm residents collective pee is amount to nothing compared
to an output from a donkey. More animals are needed on the farm
to produce enough organics as you put it to make compost to
support the organic farming," Juggernaut gently rubbed its neck
to comfort Roy. Only Juggernaut understood the value of what
comes from Roy's rear end but also from its front end bray, a
word of wisdom